We Are All Coyotes In The Future

I have been reviewing cookbooks, is where I've been. Thank you for asking. I have also been out and about taking pictures of

FLUFFY FLUFFY BABY BUMBLEBEES!!!!   

 

This is the fluffiest of all the fluffy fluffy baby bumblebees. Here he is all 'First!' and that is zackly where he belongs. This guy is extra super fluffy - he even has a fluffy NOSE. Yes that is his nose there on the right! 

Yes I know all worker bees are females. I simply do not care.

OMG look at this super fluffy little ginger bee!  He is the size of my pinkie fingernail and is all rusty red and SO STINKIN' FLUFFY!

This little guy is the most laid-back of the bumblebees. You can touch him -gently, please - and the most he'll do is lift a tiny foot in mild protest, like  'Whoa, dude.'

Here is a bumble butt, which is to say, The End of our bee gallery.

These are all 'first brood' Spring worker bees, the tiniest of the year, and each one is as perfect and jewel-like as a little Faberge egg. They are so eager that they spend as much time giving away the entrance to their nests as they do scurrying around trying to obliterate all traces of same, scuffling up the bark mulch and dust with their feet and then just as quickly messing it all up again as they come bombing in en masse from a nectar run. I did not get any pix of that because I may be weird bu -no, I am weird; but I am not stupid. That's what I mean to say.  

Bumblebees drop that surfer dude persona the closer they are to their Magnificent Queen (haay.)

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In today's busy fast-paced world you may find yourself in need of laundry detergent. And in today's busy fast-paced world you would then hop on down to your local Fred Meyers grocery store and ask one of the clerks to unlock the case for you. 

They have to keep the laundry detergent locked up. Yes they do. Behind inch thick security glass and bar steel.  

Shoplifting gangs were running in doing blitz raids on the detergent aisle and then selling their ill-gotten soap online, which says something about the price of Xtra I guess. Now Fred Meyers assume you're a shoplifter -

...unless you are very very tall indeed. 

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I like to read books way, way after the hoopla is done. I proved the rightness of this stance during the Anne Rice hullabaloo, when it was all about Lestat and Ramses the Damned and tragic castrati and so  forth.  'Interview' was a fun read, but I mean come on people.  In fact don't even get me started about Anne RiceANYWAY. Anyway.

Anyway.

Rudolfo Anaya wrote 'Bless me Ultima' back in 1972, and eeeeeeeeverybody was reading that thing. It was promptly banned, so of course in liberal-as-fuck Oregon it was proudly on the shelves of our school library, where I ignored it, and Jane Austen, despite six years of urging from various teachers. 

It's a meaning of life story set in the Southwest painted with a big, bold, red brush. It's very violent, and pretty frank about race and class, but it was the bold pagan stance it took that earned it a banning, I'm certain - Mr. Anaya is not a big fan of Catholicism. At all. 

'Bless Me, Ultima' came back strong in the 1980's for some reason, and by then I had me a damn life so I gave it yet another miss. 

Last week I picked up a copy at the Humane Society Thrift Shop and...you know what, it's not bad at all. Quite a bit better than anything Ms. Rice might have pulled out of her yallup, although it's just as fraught.  

Why do I endorse it? 1. Frequent  mention of chili peppers   2. There's no romantic content at all, which pleases me. Further, this isn't one of those Southwestern themed 'fiction with recipes' crap. There is a lot of deep meaning going on. Like, you know, symbolism and shit like that. A lot of sandstorms and bloodshed and big emotions. And owls. 

See, this is the problem I have with writing reviews. I don't want to give away the story, but I don't want to sound like a goon, like I did when I reviewed The Pentateuch on a certain library site. Therefore I have given up trying to be all Miss Perfect Book Review Lady for good.  I have been reading since 1964. I read because I love to read, period - and I trust my own taste.

You should too.

If I say something is worth reading, then get right skippy on that shit. Dear old FirstNations would not lead you wrong. Bless Me Ultima is absolutely worth a read. You can read it for enjoyment and not miss a damn thing and be entertained.  You can read it for meaning and find all kinds of fucking meaning and shades and tones and themes and references - not all of which I got - but which were presented so well that it made me want to know more. 

Now go read this book dammit. 

                                                           And quit calling me Heddy.